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In 1921, scientists in Canada discovered insulin. After winning the Nobel Prize, they sold the patent for $1 each, saying the hormone for battling diabetes “belongs to the world.” 

Now, a century later, many Americans are crossing the border to buy the life-saving medicine for themselves and their families, or ordering it online, because insulin can be up to 10 times cheaper there. 

That’s no surprise given that the list price for a vial of insulin has skyrocketed in the U.S. from 75 cents to $250 in a little more than a half-century. 

Mississippi is the first state to sue both the three drug makers that control the U.S. insulin market — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi-Aventis — and the pharmacy benefit managers, such as CVS Caremark, that negotiate prices with those companies. 

“As the mother of a diabetic, I know the emotional, physical, and financial toll the unacceptable price of insulin has on families,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch told MCIR. “I filed this lawsuit on behalf of every Mississippian who relies on this medication to survive. Even though the cost of producing these drugs has decreased, these companies have raised the reported prices of their diabetes drugs up to 1,000%, in lockstep, and down to the decimal point within a few days of each other. They are making record profits at the expense of diabetics and Mississippi taxpayers, who have been overcharged millions of dollars a year for outrageously inflated diabetes medications.” 

She put the figure for the treatment of Mississippians suffering from diabetes at $3.5 billion a year. Nationally, the direct medical costs top $237 billion. 

The lawsuit, which seeks punitive damages, claims these drug makers have been hiking insulin prices and then paying a huge chunk of that to pharmacy business managers in exchange for placing their drugs on lists from which patients pick their medications. 

The drug makers and managers deny they have been colluding to raise prices. 

“Lilly denies the allegations, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against these accusations,” Lilly officials told MCIR in a statement. “We also have taken numerous steps to ensure people living with diabetes can fill a monthly prescription of Lilly insulin at an affordable cost.” 

Novo Nordisk said the allegations are false: “We are aware of the complaint and disagree with the allegations made against the company. We are vigorously defending ourselves in these matters. We have a longstanding commitment to supporting patients’ access to our medicines.” 

CVS responded that the allegations “are built on a false premise and completely without merit.” CVS placed the blame for high insulin prices on pharmaceutical companies: “Nothing in our agreements prevents drug manufacturers from lowering the prices of their insulin products, and we would welcome such an action. Allegations that Caremark plays any role in determining the prices charged by manufacturers for their products are false, and we intend to vigorously defend against this baseless suit.” 

For centuries, Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence, often killing children in less than a year. 

Recognizing that diet played a role in diabetes, doctors experimented with potatoes, rice and even opium as possible cures. Other doctors limited patients suffering from the disease to only 400 calories a day. All of the patients died. 

Enter the unlikeliest of heroes: surgeon Dr. Frederick Banting, who had been such a mediocre medical student he didn’t know how to spell diabetes. 

In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to allow sugar to enter cells to produce energy. With help from two students, Banting began research on the problem at the University of Toronto in 1921. They were able to extract insulin from an animal pancreas that they gave to a diabetic animal. The blood sugar dropped dramatically. 

The discovery began to save lives. In 1923, Banting and his team were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work. 

The team sold the patent to the University of Toronto, which in turn worked with Eli Lilly to develop the first commercially produced insulin. 

Initially, all insulin was derived from animals, but in 1982, Eli Lilly created the first synthetic insulin, which was marketed as Humulin. 

Fourteen years later, the drug maker unveiled its first analog insulin, a laboratory-grown “human” insulin. Other companies followed suit. 

In recent decades, drug makers have introduced pills that seek to address Type 2 diabetes. Some prevent the kidneys from absorbing glucose. Some make the body more sensitive to insulin. Others help control appetite and blood sugar levels. 

Insulin pumps and pens are taking the place of syringes, and continuous glucose monitors measure blood sugar levels, transmitting that information to a smartphone or computer. In 2020, the FDA approved a device that integrated these two. 

Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi all provide assistance programs to aid patients who can’t afford insulin. 

Catie Santos, a 28-year-old from New Orleans, grew up knowing about Type 1 diabetes because her brother was diagnosed with the disease at age 10. On her 23^rd?birthday, she was horrified to learn she had the same disease. 

Since then, she has met people who were diagnosed in their 50s with the disease once known as “juvenile diabetes.” 

The monthly price of her insulin, she said, ran as much as the new Sony PlayStation 5, which can carry a price tag of more than $1,000. 

Santos went on her parents’ insurance, but that assistance ended when she turned 26. “You really have to figure out this insurance thing quickly,” she said. “I’ve known [Type 1] diabetics who had to take corporate jobs just to stay alive.” 

Some have to move back home with their parents to make it financially, she said. She is one of them. 

Her most recent scare took place in the wake of Hurricane Ida, which left her family without power for three weeks. She had to cram a month’s worth of her insulin into the refrigerator of her aunt, who happened to have a generator. 

The high cost of insulin has prompted some Americans to head for Canada or Mexico and still others manage to get the medicine or diabetic supplies through an underground network. 

“You think, ‘It’s America, it’s 2021. Surely, you don’t have to pay somebody $50 to travel to meet you with insulin after traveling for six hours,’” said Santos, who works in that network. “But the reason you do that is it’s risky shipping insulin because it’s heat sensitive.” 

Through social media, she connects people, she said. “If I hear people are in need, I’ll start a Twitter thread. We’re not trying to profit off of people; we’re trying to work the system that profits off of people.” 

In 2019, Congress heard testimony from diabetes experts and others regarding the high cost of prescription drugs. 

“I can help [patients] shop for the best price of insulin, connect them with a discount pharmacy, sometimes switch to a less expensive product,” said Dr. Kasia J. Lipska, an endocrinologist and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine. “But these are Band-Aid solutions. What we need to do is exert pressure on drug makers to reduce those prices.” 

Over the past quarter century, the prices of products have increased an average of 75%. That’s a fraction compared to the huge hike for insulin. A vial of Humalog (insulin lispro), which cost? 21 in 1996, now costs as much as $400 — a more than 1,800% increase. 

During that time, “there’s been no innovation to improve Humalog,” Lipska said. “It’s the same exact insulin hormone. The only thing that’s changed is the price.” 

A study she worked on found that 1 in 4 rationed insulin because of the high price. 

Executives for the drug makers and the pharmacy benefit managers acknowledged to Congress in 2019 that the cost of insulin had become too expensive. 

Kathleen Tregoning, an executive vice president at Sanofi, testified that while the treatment of diabetes has been transformed by medical innovations, “the landscape in which patients access medications has also fundamentally changed, and not for the better. We understand the anger of patients who cannot afford the insulin they need due to rising, out-of-pocket costs.” 

She pointed out that while the list price for Sanofi’s insulin had risen 126% between 2012 and 2018, the net price had actually fallen 25%. 

Out-of-pocket costs for those with insurance and Medicare Part D have increased about 60% over this time, she said. 

“We want these rebates, which have grown in recent years and have resulted in substantially lower net prices, to benefit patients,” she said. “Unfortunately, under the current system, savings from insulin rebates are not consistently passed through to patients in the form of lower deductibles, co-payments or coinsurance amounts.” 

Pharmacy benefit managers denied a role in the high price of insulin. “Rebates are not the cause of increasing drug prices,” Amy Bricker, senior vice president for one of the pharmacy benefit managers, Express Scripts, told Congress. “In the system today, rebates are used to reduce overall health care costs for consumers.” 

If manufacturers wanted to reduce their list prices, “there would be no implication to their rebate status,” she said. 

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Kentucky, said Congress was trying to figure out why there’s a higher price “that seems to be caught up in the system. … We need to figure out the economics.” 

During the hearing, drug makers testified they are paying billions in rebates each year to the pharmacy benefit managers in return for better placement on drug lists for patients. The drug makers say the managers are the ones to blame for the high insulin prices, because they’re failing to pass on the savings. 

The managers, however, deny this, insisting that their practices have helped lower the price of insulin. 

Then-U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said it’s frustrating to hear the drug makers and the pharmacy benefit managers point their fingers at each other for insulin’s high prices. “The status quo is not going to continue,” he said. “It can’t.” 

Mike Mason, a senior vice president for Lilly, said their net prices have declined since 2009. 

Asked if Novo Nordisk had lowered its price, President Doug Langa replied no, saying the best way to reach the most patients in the most affordable way are through the drug lists. “Anything that risks that … is something we have to strongly consider.” 

Kennedy asked Langa, “What do we do to try to make sure patients in this country get access in this country to life-saving medication that was sold for a buck to make sure that every person gets access to it? What do you suggest?” 

“I suggest that we all come together for solutions, get together with Congress to make sure rationing never happens again,” Langa replied. “One patient [dying] is too many.” 

On Sept. 28, Lilly officials announced a 40% price cut next year for the generic version of its bestselling insulin, Lispro, which will be 70% less than its name-brand version. The new list price will be $82 a vial and $159 for a pack of five pens. This is Lilly’s second price cut in two years. 

Laura Nally, a pediatric endocrinologist and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, questioned the value of this price cut since “most people know that you can get Lispro using a GoodRx coupon for $40 per vial.” 

Since Lispro doesn’t appear on a drug list for patients, she said, “this won’t help decrease the cost of the medications that insurance companies have to pay, and so the high cost of insulin is still going to translate to the person with diabetes or other individuals with private insurance. PBM’s are still able to make money, insulin manufacturers are still making money by only allowing expensive, brand name insulin on the formularies, and now can make extra money by charging $80 for a vial that only costs $6 to produce.” 

Dan Hurley, author of Diabetes Rising: How a Rare Disease Became a Modern Pandemic, and What to Do About It, said drug makers have raised the prices in recent decades because they can. 

“The incredible speed with which vaccines and antibodies against COVID-19 were developed demonstrates what’s awesome about the pharmaceutical industry,” he said. “The incredible prices of insulin and other life-saving drugs demonstrates what’s wrong.” 

MCIR J-Lab student Karli Carpenter contributed to this report. 

Email Jerry.Mitchell@MississippiCIR.org. 
You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

This story was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and funded in part by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. It was also produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes MCIR, the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University, Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Mississippi Today. 

Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit news organization that is exposing wrongdoing, educating and empowering Mississippians, and raising up the next generation of investigative reporters. Sign up for our newsletter. 

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The Cleveland boys discuss a huge college football Saturday, the yoyo Saints and the Greenwood Christian dilemma.

Stream all episodes here.

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The school board for the Greenville Public School District said there was not enough evidence to determine whether the absences of 16 of the district’s 20 bus drivers in late April constituted a strike. 

The alleged strike occurred over two days. On the first day, 15 bus drivers did not come to work. On the second, 16 did not show. 

Several drivers spoke with media outlets, including Mississippi Today, and said they were protesting poor working conditions and low pay.

In the month following, the school board asked its attorney Dorian Turner to gather documentation so the members could determine whether a strike, which is illegal in Mississippi, occurred. In the event of a strike, state law requires school board members to submit the names of those involved in the work stoppage to the attorney general.

Turner did so, but the board decided it was not enough information for them to make a decision. In a July 29 letter to the Attorney General’s office, school board attorney Dorian Turner wrote that due to “conflicting information,” the board could not make a “definitive determination” about the events of those two days. 

“They (the school board) could not make a definitive decision,” Turner told Mississippi Today. “We decided to turn it over to the AG’s office … and say ‘Here’s the information they looked at, and we’re handing it over in an effort to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to do’ according to the law.”

As a result, the attorney general’s office will not take any action, it told the school district.

“In the absence of a finding by the Board that any individual has engaged in a strike pursuant to (state law,) there is nothing at this time to certify to the AGO,” wrote Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb in an Aug. 31 letter to the district. 

The bus drivers in April cited their disapproval of the school board’s decision to reduce their work days — and thus, their pay — for the following school year. The board, after the two-day work stoppage, reversed that decision. 

Shortly after, Turner advised the school board it should consider undoing the restoration of the work days.

“It looked to me that what we had is a situation where bus drivers had gone on strike, and that was activity that was illegal and the board should consider undoing the restoration of those days,” Turner said at a special called board meeting on May 6, just several days after the supposed strike occurred. 

The board did not follow Turner’s advice to revisit the vote and delayed making any decisions on the matter for two months. 

Mississippi law prohibits public employees from striking. The law defines a strike as “a concerted failure to report for duty, a willful absence from one’s position, the stoppage of work, a deliberate slowing down of work, or the withholding, in whole or in part, of the full, faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges or obligations of public employment.”

The law also states school board members shall certify the names of employees who go on strike to the attorney general or be subject to a misdemeanor conviction and daily fines. 

Turner included supplemental information in her letter to the attorney general, including documents showing that every driver who was absent on those two days submitted documentation requesting those days as a sick day. She also said drivers were not paid for those two days after the district advised each driver a doctor’s excuse would be required to be paid. 

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The governor’s national ambitions mirror two leader GOP contenders one step behind them.

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Gov. Tate Reeves said he intends to call a special session to take up legalizing medical marijuana as soon as some final details are worked out between him and legislative leaders.

“I am confident we will have a special session of the Legislature if we get the specifics of a couple of items that are left outstanding,” Reeves said Tuesday during a news conference. “Again, we have made great progress working with our legislative leaders.”

Reeves said it is more important to get a bill to legalize marijuana done right than done quickly.

He cited as areas of concern:

• The level of THC dosages. THC is the chemical in marijuana that produces the feeling of euphoria or a high.
• The amount of marijuana that can be provided to people.
• And who would be eligible to receive medical marijuana.

Legislative leaders have said they relied on industry standards in setting THC levels and amounts dispensed in their proposal.

In addition to the issues Reeves listed Tuesday, his office has also been back and forth with lawmakers adding language to ensure that marijuana businesses cannot receive state economic development incentives or credits.

While the governor said he wanted to take the time to ensure the bill “is right,” he did acknowledge the overwhelming vote in favor of a medical marijuana ballot initiative during the 2020 election. That vote, though, was ruled unconstitutional in May 2021 by the state Supreme Court because language establishing the initiative process references gathering signature to place an issue on the ballot from five congressional districts. The state has not had five districts since the 1990 census.

After the Supreme Court ruled the medical marijuana initiative vote unconstitutional, legislative leaders began drafting a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in anticipation of Reeves calling a special session. Legislative leaders said recently they had reached an agreement and were ready for Reeves to call a special session. The governor, though, has identified the areas of concern he wants addressed before the special session is called.

Even if an agreement between Reeves and legislative leaders is reached, that would not prevent it from being altered during a special session during the normal legislative process.

In addition, Reeves said he is considering other items that he might add to the special session agenda. Those included providing state death benefits for emergency first responders who died because of the coronavirus.

He also said he and legislators were beginning to discuss the spending priorities for $1.8 billion in COVID-19 relief funds approved earlier this year for Mississippi by the U.S. Congress.

Reeves said he is considering the proposal of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn to use some of those federal relief funds to provide additional pay to nurses and other health care employees to address the worker shortage that has occurred during the pandemic.

“We are very interested in developing a plan to deal with the long-term challenges in the health care arena and health care shortages,” Reeves said.

READ MORE: Ballot initiative fix not likely to occur during 2021 special session

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When they learned last year that Hall of Fame NFL quarterback and Kiln native Brett Favre had taken $1.1 million in welfare money from the state, Mississippians were incensed.

Favre received the federal grant funds to sponsor a “family-stabilizing” initiative pushed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant and his wife called Families First for Mississippi.

The state auditor claimed Favre was hired for speaking engagements he didn’t attend.

Followers of the story were even more miffed when, as months went on after the revelation, officials would not accuse Favre of wrongdoing. Favre faced no charges or public repercussions, and recurring national headlines regarding the athlete in the last year (usually because of politically divisive things he’s said on his new podcast) barely mentioned the welfare scandal.

State Auditor Shad White, who uncovered the payment and a larger embezzlement scheme leading to six arrests, wouldn’t even say whether Favre had to pay the money back.

On Tuesday, Favre at last received a demand: He must pay the state $828,000 or face a civil lawsuit.

“The sum demanded represents illegal expenditures of public funds made to you or to
entities or combines for which you are legally obligated to pay and/or the unlawful dispositions of public property, including public funds, made with you or with entities or combines for which you are legally responsible to pay,” the letter reads. “These illegal expenditures and unlawful dispositions were made when you knew or had reason to know through the exercise of reasonable diligence that the expenditures were illegal and/or the dispositions were unlawful.”

The auditor’s office sent out letters demanding repayment from Favre and 14 other individuals or organizations for a total of $77 million in misspent welfare dollars. These demands do not represent criminal allegations.

Favre had already promised to voluntarily pay the money back, claiming he did not know the funds came from a federal grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — the anti-poverty program known as welfare.

Favre paid $500,000 to the auditor’s office shortly after the news broke, but failed to pay the remaining $600,000. The athlete refused to answer any of Mississippi Today’s questions about why he received the contract, what he performed for Families First, or where the remaining money was. He offered a short explanation to his Twitter followers before blocking this reporter on the platform.

Favre’s longtime agent Bus Cook, who eventually told Mississippi Today he had nothing to do with securing the Families First sponsorship for his client, did not return calls on Tuesday.

The $828,000 demand, which also went to Favre Enterprises and business partner Robert Culumber, includes the $600,000 he failed to repay plus interest.

Favre isn’t the only retired athlete who has been ordered to repay welfare funds after they “did not completely fulfill the terms of their contracts” with Mississippi Department of Human Services, the auditor’s release said.

Ted DiBiase Jr., a retired WWE wrestler, must return $3.9 million — virtually all the money he earned as a motivational speaker for the welfare agency, plus interest.

His dad, former WWE wrestler dubbed “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase Sr., must pay $722,299 that his Christian ministry received, purportedly to help underprivileged teens. He told a sports reporter at the time that his church had been “selected by our governor” — then Gov. Phil Bryant — to “be the face of his faith-based initiative.”

His other son, Brett DiBiase, who is one of only two people to plead guilty within the alleged welfare scheme, must pay $225,950, according to the letter.

The Marcus Dupree Foundation, owned by former football player Marcus Dupree, received a demand for $789,534.

But the biggest demand comes to former Mississippi Department of Human Services director John Davis, who is on the hook for $96.313 million “for his role authorizing over $77 million in illegal TANF spending.” He is currently awaiting trial on embezzlement charges. Though Davis took his direction from his boss, the man who hired him in 2016, then-Gov. Phil Bryant, the auditors have not placed any culpability on the state’s top official at the time.

The nonprofits through which most of the misspending flowed — Mississippi Community Education Center, owned by discredited private school founder Nancy New, and Family Resource Center of North Mississippi — also received demand letters through their officers.

They must pay $68.2 million and $15.5 million, respectively.

The other demands included:

• Davis’ nephew Austin Smith: $378,791
• JTS Enterprises and Transformational Ventures, controlled by Davis’ brother-in-law Brian Jeff Smith: $674,715
• Mississippi Community Education Center founder Nancy New, also indicted in the scheme: $2,589 (for payments received from FRC)
• NCC Ventures, controlled by Nicholas Coughlin: $237,915
• Warren Washington Issaquena Sharkey Community Action Agency: $75,261
• Nancy New’s son Zach New, who was also indicted in the scheme: $74,118 (for payments received from FRC)

“After our first DHS audit, I told the public we would have to consult with our federal partners at the Department of Health and Human Services before coming to final conclusions about who owed what money back,” White said in a release Tuesday. “Those partners were waiting for this forensic audit. Now that it’s complete, we are in a position to demand the illegally spent welfare funds be returned to the state.”

The people who received letters must repay the funds within 30 days. If they do not, the Attorney General’s Office is responsible for pursuing the case in civil court. These proceedings are not the same as criminal charges.

The post Brett Favre owes Mississippi $828K and wrestlers owe $4.8M, auditor says in latest demand appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dozens of students at Alcorn State University stood in silence on the campus lawn. They wore black shirts emblazoned with raised fists and held signs that summarized the mood on campus toward the president, Felecia Nave.

“We are brave.” “Talk to us.” “Nave doesn’t care if we live or die.” 

Protests are rarely seen at Alcorn, the nation’s oldest historically Black land grant university, where students face pressure to resolve issues with administration internally. But after two years of increasing unhappiness with Nave’s leadership, students and faculty say they no longer trust the president. 

Jaquerius Howard, the student government president, even took the extraordinary step of writing to the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, calling on Nave to resign because of her ineffective leadership. 

“She has continuously shown a lack of empathy, transparency, and communication,” Howard wrote in a letter signed by members of the Royal Court, student government and senate. 

Since the student protest at the end of September, Mississippi Today spoke with more than a dozen students, faculty and alumni. They say that since Nave became president in 2019, she has made Alcorn a tougher place for low-income, marginalized students. 

Their grievances are wide-ranging. Some are systemic and ongoing: An increased workload without extra pay for faculty. Spotty WiFi, and outdated technology in classrooms. Others are focused on specific incidents, like an ice storm that left students without food for days. 

The university has disputed many of these assertions in statements to Mississippi Today and the campus. In a letter to the student body addressing the protest, Nave wrote that a lack of resources has required Alcorn to take an “incremental approach” to remedying student concerns. 

“Students have been my number one priority since I arrived, and they continue to be my priority,” she wrote. “At Alcorn, we remain committed to ensuring that all students have the resources to succeed.” 

Unless otherwise noted, students and faculty spoke with Mississippi Today on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution. At a university that is isolated in rural Claiborne County, where the community cares intensely for it and feels like no one else does, it can be hard to speak up. 

“In all honesty, there are already a lot of negative stereotypes about HBCUs and the African Americans who run them,” a student majoring in liberal arts said. When students speak out, he said, “we’re often met with the criticism that we’re helping to perpetuate that.” 

But addressing the way Nave is leading the school is too important to stay silent. 

“It’s almost like, ‘what happens in this house stays in this house,’” he said. “But that can’t really happen when what’s happening in this house is hurting me.” 

When Nave was selected as president in 2019, the campus was excited. Not only would she be the first Black woman to lead Alcorn, many thought her presidency would be a turning point. Enrollment had been declining for the last two years. After decades of underfunding by the IHL board and state Legislature, Alcorn was now facing a new budget challenge as funding from the Ayers v. Fordice settlement was set to end. 

Nave, herself a graduate of Alcorn, seemed poised to address these challenges. 

“We thought that she was more than capable of thriving in this environment,” said Calvert White, who was a sophomore at the time. “And then we were met by lackluster policy.” 

For many students, the first sign that Nave would not live up to expectations came shortly after she started at Alcorn. For years, students had participated in a weekly dance in the Clinton J. Bristow Dining Hall called “Club Cafe.” It was a tradition, a safe way for students to have fun at the isolated campus. But the summer Nave came to campus, Sodexo, Alcorn’s food-service provider, and campus police “reported increasing behaviors unbecoming of college students,” Alcorn’s spokesperson told Mississippi Today. Nave stopped allowing music. 

To students, it felt like Nave didn’t understand the culture of the community she had agreed to lead. 

“Students are gonna party,” said Shanique Strickland, a senior criminal justice and social work double major. “If anybody knows anything about Alcorn, from way back when we have been able to do Club Cafe. That is part of Alcorn’s culture. I would rather she cultivate an environment where we can have our fun safely instead of us having to drive far away or off campus to a house party.” 

Before long, students started to lose faith. In March 2020, the pandemic hit, and Alcorn’s campus shut down. At home, many students did not have laptops or reliable WiFi. Online learning was a challenge. The liberal arts major said he had to complete homework on his phone; due to the stay-at-home order, he “couldn’t even sit outside the public library and get WiFi.”

He felt like Alcorn could have done more to help. The university partially refunded room and board in April, and allocated federal stimulus money to students in May. But Alcorn did not offer a pass/fail grading option, which made this student feel like he was “expected to perform at the maximum capability with no resources.” 

“I think that definitely decreased motivation, because my GPA took a hit for something I couldn’t control,” he said. 

For faculty, distrust quickly turned into animosity after Nave’s office made a series of policy changes that led to critical classes being canceled for students and higher course loads and less pay for professors. 

To help teach students, Alcorn relies on instructors and adjuncts. Prior to Nave, most instructors were required to teach four courses a semester. If they taught additional courses, they would receive extra “overload” pay. 

During Nave’s first semester as president, faculty were informed that classes that didn’t meet a new minimum enrollment would be cancelled, and instructors would be expected to teach five courses a semester, without extra pay. 

Faculty felt blind-sided. One instructor who makes $35,000 a year said he did not know how he would afford his bills without overload pay, which had amounted to about $3,000. He also did not have enough students to teach five classes, which led him to worry about losing his job. 

Faculty asked Nave to delay the new policies, but she refused, saying declining enrollment made these changes necessary “to ensure the overall stability and financial standing” of Alcorn. 

“The University may not — and will not — overspend its IHL budget,” Nave wrote in a letter to faculty. 

When the policies went into effect in January 2020, they also created problems for students. The liberal arts student, who attends Alcorn on a scholarship, said that courses he needed to graduate were cut due to low enrollment. His professors had to spend the first couple weeks of the semester trying to get the registrar’s office to re-offer the classes. 

The new policies left “us low-income, first generation students in a pretty bad situation,” he said. “A lot of us don’t have parents that can pay tuition. We need to get out of here on time so we don’t have to pay any more than we already are.” 

In response to those concerns, the university said that if a course was not offered during the year that a student was set to graduate, the university has “accommodated the student to ensure that they were able to graduate on time.”

By fall 2020, discord over these policies had reached its peak. The faculty senate requested a meeting with Nave and the provost in the auditorium to discuss their concerns that the new policies made it harder for instructors to deliver high-quality instruction. Many faculty attended. 

Faculty explained they wanted more input on policies that affected course offerings and pay. But Nave pushed back: “The president of the institution makes the decision,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting. 

Instructors, she continued, only wanted to keep more courses because they wanted to get extra pay.

“It is not the norm that every department sets a different class size,” she said, “because you’re trying to split the class so you can get an overload and get $2,000 more dollars.” 

Faculty interpreted this as Nave calling instructors greedy. The implication was particularly insulting, faculty said, because Nave makes $240,000 a year while the average instructor makes around $40,000. 

One tenured professor said he’s never seen morale so low in 20 years at Alcorn.

“Our faculty are demoralized; our students are demoralized,” he said. “What good is this? In the effort to save money, you’ve turned the campus into a miserable place.” 

Tensions were already high at the beginning of this year. Then in mid-February, the ice storm hit. 

One professor was sitting next to her fireplace on the night of Feb. 15 when she started getting frantic text messages from students: “They’re like, ‘we don’t have food.’” 

The roads had become slick with ice, preventing dining services from getting to campus. Before long, students started trading food. Eventually, students banded together and bought meals from Pattons, a takeout joint in Lorman, to serve in the cafeteria. All the while, they heard nothing from the president. 

“You would’ve thought that we did not have a president running the university,” White said. “I‘ve never seen a situation where it’s literally every student for themselves.” 

Students’ disappointment with Nave’s leadership turned into anger. They questioned why the university had not adequately prepared food services for the storm. 

Students also wondered why they hadn’t heard from Nave herself. Campus news and the vice president for student affairs had sent emails to students throughout the week, but Nave did not write to students directly until Sunday, Feb. 21, when she sent an update that classes would be resuming the next day.

“In our minds, we’re thinking, ‘well where is she? Is she okay? Is she somewhere comfortable and warm while we’re freezing?’” Strickland said.

In a statement, Alcorn said that Nave was communicating to students through the campus news and that the campus was informed “of revised hours of operations due to the inclement weather” at the cafeteria.

The anger about the storm carried over into April, when Nave was formally inaugurated in the chapel on campus. Prior to the ceremony, banners with Nave’s face on it were strung up across campus, and Strickland noticed that some roads were repaved and lined with flower beds. Alcorn said these changes were part of “the continual beautification of campus.” 

When White walked into the cafeteria that week, he was shocked at the bounty compared to what it was like during the ice storm.

“It was like wonderland: We had a popcorn machine, there was snow cones, we had f—in’ crawfish,” he said.

Burnt out and traumatized by the ice storm, White transferred to Jackson State University to finish his studies at the end of the spring semester.

Not long after students gathered outside Nave’s office for the protest in late September, she asked them to meet her inside the Old Gym for a town hall. For two hours, students questioned her about the longstanding issues they wanted to see addressed. 

The tenured professor watched a Facebook livestream of the town hall in astonishment. He told Mississippi Today he could remember just one other time students protested the administration.

“There’s no tradition of challenging authority here with just a few exceptions,” he said. “I’m frankly surprised the Student Government Association led a protest and requested the president resign. It’s unheard of for Alcorn.” 

Nave sent out a letter to students after the town hall. She wrote that the protest had “deeply saddened” her, and she pledged to be more visible on campus, to “enhance student engagement,” and to “strengthen the technology infrastructure.” Then she listed her accomplishments during her last two years as president. 

“As I said when I arrived,” Nave wrote at the end of the letter, ‘We are Alcorn. I am Alcorn.’”  

The words rang hollow to many students and faculty. They want real change. And now, alumni are involved. Several concerned graduates have come together to create a group called Alcornites for Change. They have posted a survey on their website to gather feedback, the results of which they hope to use to hold Nave accountable. 

“The day those kids protested … it opened a vast majority of people’s eyes,” said Jared Gilmore, one of the alumni group’s organizers. 

Ultimately, many no longer see the president as synonymous with the university. That’s the central frustration for the tenured professor who spoke to Mississippi Today — that Nave has convinced some on campus she is “the brand.” 

“Any university that understands its mission understands the students are the brand,” he said, “not the freaking buildings, not the administration and certainly not the president.”

The post ‘What’s happening in this house is hurting me’: Why students at Alcorn State called for their president to resign appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Thirteen years ago, at the direction of One Voice, a small group of community leaders and elected officials gathered with the MS NAACP in a roundtable discussion on leadership. This discussion evolved into a monthly meeting aimed at cultivating strategic alliances. As a result of these discussions, the first Mississippi Black Leadership Summit was held in 2008, convening members of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, the Mississippi Association of Black Mayors, the Minority Caucus of Supervisors, MBC-LEO, the Black Sheriff’s Association, Partners in Education, Tax Assessors / Tax Collectors, Chancery and Circuit Clerks.

One Voice’s award-winning Mississippi Black Leadership Summit is coming to a community near you next month. Annually, this event convenes community leaders and elected officials for leadership development, hoping that this investment in these leaders will help build more sustainable communities and a Mississippi we all deserve. One Voice is excited to announce #MBLS2021 will uplift leaders in communities all over the state as we will be virtually traveling to every region in Mississippi for the summit.

Through the American Rescue Plan, Mississippi will receive the most significant direct federal funding in history to rebuild local economies over the next few years. As community advocates, One Voice and its partners should lead the charge, following the money and ensuring all communities can thrive. We must provide resources across the state that are not invested or funneled into systems that promote inequity. With this in mind, One Voice is using #MBLS2021 to examine what community investments should be prioritized in our state. 

MBLS Workshop Titles, Locations, and Dates

From Crisis to Opportunity: Exploring Education Investments in the Mississippi Delta
Delta – Wednesday, October 20, 2021, 5:30 pm

Who Pays, Mississippi? An overview of income, race, and economic development in Mississippi
North – Thursday, October 21 at l1am

Making the Connection from Electricity to Broadband 
Southwest – Friday, October 22 at 11 am

Lifting Our Voices: Protecting our Voting Rights & Pushing for Fair Representation
Gulf Coast – Tuesday, October 26 at 11 am

Criminal Justice in Mississippi; where we are and where we need to be 
East – Wednesday, October 27 at 11 am

Community Conversation: What’s On Your Mind? 
Central – Thursday, October 28 at 6 pm

MBLS is free to the public, but registration is required. Participants can register at onevoicems.org. 

One Voice is a nonprofit organization specializing in training, leadership development, and network building in underserved communities. Our mission is to ensure an equal voice to traditionally silenced communities.

The post #MBLS2021 Virtually Coming to a City Near You! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Legislators will be redrawing Mississippi’s four U.S. House seats and 174 state legislative seats as the state is undergoing some significant changes to its population.

The percentage of the state’s white population is shrinking faster than that of other demographic groups. The state’s white and African American population both decreased during the past 10 years, but the overall non-white population grew.

Additionally, Mississippians are moving from rural to urban and suburban areas of the state.

The state had a Black population of 1,084,481 as of the 2020 Census compared to 1,098,385 10 years earlier — a decline of 13,940 people. During the same time, Mississippi’s white population decreased at a much faster rate, shrinking 95,791 people the past 10 years to 1,658,893. Other minority groups experienced slight upticks during the past 10 years, though still making up a much smaller percentage of the state’s overall population when compared to the white and African American population.

The percentage of Mississippians identifying as other than solely white or African American was 3.85% in 2010 and now stands at 7.36%, according to Census data. Scott County in east central Mississippi is now about 15% Hispanic.

A growing non-white population in the midst of overall population loss is one of the puzzles members of the Legislature will have to figure out next year as they redraw the U.S. congressional and state legislative seats.

To further complicate that puzzle, the 2020 Census reveals that the areas of the state that have traditionally been majority African American — primarily counties touching or close to the Mississippi River — lost significant population the past 10 years. According to information compiled by Chism Strategies, a Mississippi-based polling and political consulting firm, the population of the Delta, which comprises a considerable amount of the river counties, declined 38,000 or 12% during the past 10 years.

Currently, there are 14 African American-majority districts in the state Senate and 42 in the House. Under federal law, it is difficult, though not impossible, for states to reduce the number of Black majority districts through a process called retrogression. So the Legislature will face the challenge of finding new Black majority districts to perhaps replace population loss in traditional Black population centers that are losing residents, such as the Mississippi Delta.

READ MORE: Mississippi one of just three states to lose population since 2010

A joint legislative committee recently concluded a series of nine hearing across the state to garner public input on redistricting as they begin the task of redrawing the districts to match population shifts found during the 2020 shifts. The Legislature is expected to take up redistricting during the 2022 session, which begins in January.

Both the U.S. Constitution and state law mandate the redrawing of districts every 10 years after the Census is completed.

Time and again during the series of hearings, legislators were urged to ensure Black representation grows in the state. But how to achieve that African American representation has evolved over the years.

Rep. Ed Blackmon, who has been a member of the state House since 1980 and played a major role in increasing the number of Black majority districts in the state, has said in past interviews that at one time there was a belief that super majority minority districts (Black populations of 75% or more) had to be drawn for Black candidates to win. Blackmon said that is no longer the case. He and others now oppose what they say are the efforts of Republican majorities “to pack” Black residents in a limited number of districts.

Now, Blackmon and others argue, Black residents should not be “packed” into super majority minority districts but instead spread into more districts to increase their influence.

“Stacking and packing and gerrymandering voting districts to make safe districts for any party should be avoided,” said Lynn Evans, a board member of Mississippi Common Cause, which promotes for various issues dealing with governmental transparency. She said “classic safe districts” have a tendency to elect candidates who often do not serve the best interest of the state as a whole.

Rep. Hester Jackson McCray, D-Southaven, whose narrow win in House District 40 in 2019 made her the first African American to represent DeSoto County in the Legislature, said, “DeSoto County has the 3rd largest minority population in our state, but I feel that our minority population communities have been successfully broken apart and gerrymandered so that our vote has been diluted, and it has been impossible for a person of color to win a seat at the legislative table where decisions are made until my House 40 victory in 2019.”

Evans said the Black population in DeSoto County has grown by nearly 20,000 residents since 2010.

To highlight the evolution of DeSoto County, one of the fastest growing counties in the state, look no further than Jackson McCray’s District 40. In 2010, District 40 had a Black population of 34%. Now its African American population is just under 50% and when "other" groups are factored in, the district's minority population is now a majority, according to the 2020 Census data. She said during one of the public hearings of the Joint Legislative Redistricting Committee that perhaps two African American majority House district and a Senate district could be drawn in the fast growing Memphis suburb.

Overall, six counties had growth of 10% or more while 12 more had growth of less than 10%. Those growing counties were mostly in urban or suburban areas. The other 64 counties, mostly rural, lost population.  The most glaring exception to the trend of migration from rural to urban/suburban areas was Hinds, the state’s most populous county, which includes Jackson, the state’s most populous city. Hinds’ population declined 17,000, or 7%, according to Chism.

According to analysis done by Chism, only nine of the 42 majority Black districts had a population that was within 5% of the legally allowed ideal population. The rest were below that number.

The trick for the Legislature will be to draw districts to provide representation for the state’s African American population in light of the fact that traditional centers of Black population in the state are losing residents in significant numbers.

The state’s Black population in 2010 was 37.02%, with a black voting-age population of 34.7%, based on Census data. African Americans comprise 36.62% of the population in 2020, with a black voting-age population of 35.25%.

But during the same time period the decline in the white community was much more precipitous, dropping from 59.13% in 2010 to 56.02% in 2020.

These numbers reflect those who identify in only one demographic area. To further illustrate the growth in the state’s minority population, the percentage of people who identify in more than one demographic area also is growing.

Overall, Mississippi’s population declined slightly during the past 10 years — just over 6,000 people to 2,961,279. Most states in the Southeastern region had significant population gains.

TAKE OUR SURVEY: What factors do you consider most important as you think about staying in Mississippi or leaving Mississippi?

The post Lawmakers face redistricting reality: Mississippi’s non-white population is growing appeared first on Mississippi Today.